Saturday, August 13, 2005

How much did you get last night?

Ever since I heard the joke at Saskatchewan Conference (of the United Church, held in Arcola back in May), I've been picturing that line as a link on my blog, pointing to a place where you can submit your own rainfall observations and see how much your neighbours got.

Well, now I actually have a blog, and on Thursday I picked up a rain gauge of my own. The instructions said to place the gauge away from tall objects, at least twice their height away, but with the trees along both sides of the yard (and some in the middle too), I'd be almost in the old "brick ponds" if I stuck to that standard. So I settled on a spot in the garden (where the spike goes into the soil easily).

This morning I looked out and saw a little puddle on the driveway. Whee! I rushed out to the garden, but my hopes fell when I saw dry soil under the zucchini leaves. I think there was more rain sticking to the sides of the gauge than puddled in the bottom. Trace, I guess. Estevan is reporting 0.0 mm in the last 24 hours.

I know this isn't very sophisticated, but if you want to add your rainfall observations, just note them in the comments to this post, with the units (mm or inches or the good old "tenths"), the date and a location. Don't get too specific - I don't want people using my blog to find out personal information about my readers - but maybe a land description would be okay, or something like "Arcola (SE)" if you live in town. One of my projects is to learn enough database programming to have a little form where you can plug in the numbers, and a map to display the results.

23 comments:

arcolaura said...

Aug. 15 - showers this morning, but only a trace again. (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

Aug. 24 - thunderstorm last night - 6 tenths. (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

Aug. 31 - 7 tenths overnight, and showers continuing this morning. (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

Aug. 31 - almost 7 tenths more through the day today. (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

Sept. 16 - showers, only a trace (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

Sept. 17 - less than one tenth (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

Sept. 23 - one tenth (Arcola, SE)

arcolaura said...

I've been neglecting this lately, but I made some rough notes of recent precipitation here.

arcolaura said...

Some wet snow over the last few days. I haven't tried to keep track of amounts, and I haven't decided whether to work out a measuring system. I read once about some fancy snow gauge that Canada is known for, but I'm not about to go out and buy or make one. A guy from Stoughton told me he just puts a coffee can on a board in an aspen bluff (sheltered from wind) and checks to see how much snow fell in it. Sounds like a good idea, but I don't have an aspen bluff. Any place that's fairly sheltered around here is probably significantly affected by drifting off of nearby roofs.

arcolaura said...

Some rain yesterday, mixed with snow. I don't have the rain gauge out yet.

arcolaura said...

Slow start with the rain records this spring. We had about two tenths, oh, somewhere around Easter weekend. Then we had 1.9 inches, mostly on the 18th and overnight into the morning of the 19th.

arcolaura said...

Umm, I took the rain gauge out of the garden to till it, and forgot to put it back. We had a nice soaker of a rain on Sunday (the 23rd), don't know how much.

arcolaura said...

Today - 3 tenths. Night before last (I think), 1 tenth (if I remember rightly...)

arcolaura said...

Three tenths from a thunderstorm overnight.

arcolaura said...

Yesterday - another three tenths plus, through the day.

arcolaura said...

Yesterday evening the guage said 1.4 inches. I don't remember when I last emptied it, but I think most of that was just yesterday afternoon from one thunderstorm. It's raining again this morning.

arcolaura said...

I've missed recording several rain showers that gave us a tenth or two at a time. Now we've just had several days of off-and-on rain showers which totalled 1.2 inches as of supper time, and then another four tenths from one hard rain this evening.

arcolaura said...

Thunderstorm last night - more than four tenths.

arcolaura said...

One tenth three nights ago, and one tenth last night.

arcolaura said...

Nearly 3 tenths over the last day and a half.

arcolaura said...

Wish I'd seen it. Nearly four tenths, so fast that only about half of it went into the rain barrel.

arcolaura said...

6 tenths today. Just a trace from the morning storm, but a downpour this evening. I hear there was over an inch up in the hills.

I was away the last half of July, got back on the 31st. Must have been some rain in there somewhere, because the rain barrel was near full, but the soil was very dry. We needed this!

arcolaura said...

Last evening - over 7 tenths. Plus a brilliant rainbow - a full arch and double at both ends - and amazing sunset glow colour throughout the land and skyscapes, and on top of all that, a spectacular lightning show slowly drifting away.